New CPU advice

Looking for some advice in getting a new CPU. Currently I’m running a 3 year old i7 7700 3.6Ghz and an RTX 3080. I’m a bit CPU limited so wanting to get a bit more out of my new graphics card.

I’ll need a new motherboard too and my budget is about £750 max. From what I’ve heard and read AMD are the better option at the moment but I’m open to suggestions. Am I right in thinking going for something 8 core 16 thread is the best sweet spot at the moment for price and performance?

As we all know CPU’s are in very short supply at the moment. I’ve been looking at the Ryzen 7 5800X plus motherboard bundles like this one https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-7-5800x-eight-core-4.7ghz-gigabyte-x570-ud-motherboard-cpu-bundle.html

That CPU seems to be one of the few thats currently available. However I’ve heard that CPU isn’t great value for money compared to others slightly above and below it in the same range.

There’s also Ryzen 9 bundles like this one available https://www.awd-it.co.uk/amd-ryzen-9-3900x-twelve-core-4.6ghz-asus-rog-strix-b550-e-gaming-motherboard-cpu-bundle.html

Is that a better deal having more cores or is it an older processor?

I get a bit lost with the multiple generations of CPU on the market so any advice is welcome.

Hello there !

Changed my old Ryzen 1600X @ 3.8Ghz on MSI B350M Gaming Pro MB and 16Go RAM for a Ryzen 5800X @ 4.8Ghz with a MSI B550M Bazooka MB and 32Go RAM last week (and kept my RTX 2060 @ 1440p due to the actual shortage of good GCs).

  • Before I was more CPU limited than GPU limited and has 25/30fps to 40fps max in clean zones with regular stutters.

  • Right now I’m GPU limited all the time and have constant 35/40fps without stutters (for the moment).

Ryzen 5800X is pretty good for gaming (not the best one but very good)

Hope that can help you.

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No. Single threaded performance is the most important factor and the 5000 series is significantly faster than the 3000. Thus the 5600x yields better performance in Flight Simulator and is significantly cheaper than the 3900x. Flight Simulator simply doesn’t use those extra cores, so if you want to save a buck get the 5600x or 5800x rather than a processor with more cores.

The 5000 series from AMD currently has the best single threaded performance, making it the best processor you can currently get for Flight Simulator. It’ll likely be overtaken by Intel shortly, but for the moment, it’s tops. The 5600x at $300 with a $150-$200 AMD chipset is probably your best bang for the buck option, in addition to being currently the fastest setup. You’ll then be GPU bound with that 3080.

Price per core, I heard it’s the “worst deal”. But it’s between the cost of the 5600x and 5900x so whatevs.

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Thanks for the replies everyone. Thats exactly the sort of advice I was after. I’ll see if I can get my hands on a 5600X. If not I’ll just go for the 5800X,

Great choice, the extra cores on the 5900/5950X won’t be utilized anyways.

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This looks like quite a good buy and is in stock

Wait for the i9 Gen 11 to release with a compatible MB, then use a M.2 PCIe 4.0. That is what I am waiting on.

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I think an i9 will be out of my budget range sadly. Plus aren’t all those extra cores a bit of a waste for FS?

For what it is worth, I saw a Ryzen 5 and 7 5xxx series in stock at Best Buy, one of each. So maybe they have some. Otherwise, I’d suggest following some of the trackers on Twitter if supply is an issue.

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They are for now.DX12 may took full advantage of the extra cores.Get the Ryzen CPU.If I had the cash right now I would do the same upgrade although I am mostly GPU bound.

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No, it won’t.

CPU’s with more than 6C/12T or 8C/16T are only used in heavy productivity workloads (3D rendering, video editing etc).
There’s currently not a single game or sim that will utilize all those extra cores/threads, and that’s not likely to change the coming years. Certainly DirectX12 will not bring this. The workloads are simply too different.

Solid advise otherwise. The 5600X/5800X are pretty much the sweet spot for gaming/simming right now.

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From watching a few youtube clips people do seem to be getting great results with Ryzen 5600X paired with a RTX3080 and its a good £100 less here in the UK over the 5800X. I can see why everyone is after the cheaper option if there’s no real advantage to the 8 core version for gaming.

My old i7 7700 is perfectly ok for other games but FS2020 really needs a fast powerful CPU. Flying a 787 out of Heathrow I get about 40% GPU usage and around 20FPS. Crazy amounts of bottlenecking with certain areas of the sim.

I’m sure a 5600X will help with my VR experience too.